Miguel Gutierrez

The Age & Beauty trilogy could be seen as a “portrait of the artist as a young man growing old”. Or alternatively, a bitingly critical testament haunted by the idea of suicide, and of giving up the fight for recognition. What we are confronted with is a ferocious, no-holds-barred bout of self-reflection, dealing with, in no apparent order, compromise, growing old, and love. A sort of Beckettian “You must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on” for the post-modern era. But then again it could also be seen as an extended, angry, gay poem, taking in an eclectic medley of portraits, kitsch, wasted bodies and out-of-tune tunes. It all amounts to a radical and festive manifesto, a big Fuck You to conformism and resignation. These different facets are key to Miguel Gutierrez’s work - American artist, choreographer and musician - and are mirrored, to disco ball-like effect, in these three works. They are complemented by a flood of beguiling subtitles, along the lines of “suicide notes” and “the choreographer and his muse”.

In the third part, he has invited a group of performers to join him in order to collectively crack open his own imagination. Young, old, and not looking like dancers at all, they nonetheless dance, sing, and multiply all the different connections and interactions en route. They are carried along by Miguel Gutierrez’s musical composition - a dream-like mixture of science fiction and ambient songs, spiced up with TV music. Via this array of different portraits, the choreographer questions his own place, the posteriority of his work and the consistency of these stories which puts six individuals together on a stage.

December 6th,  15h
Free Entrance
Mona Bismarck American Center
34 avenue de New York 75116 Paris
Reservation : rsvp@monabismarck.org

Miguel Gutierrez
discusses Age & Beauty

American choreographer Miguel Gutierrez will speak (in English) about his Age & Beauty trilogy. This suite of queer pieces addresses the representation of the dancer, the physical and emotional labor of performance. Gutierrez will go behind the scenes and dissect his hypothesis that relationships, money, and flights of fancy are at the center of all art making.